How the mobillity infrasturcture in London
You might know already the population of the London boroughs, *todo something about population but how is the mobility insfrastructure for each of them?
Cycle
London counts with The London Cycle Network Plus (LCN+) a network of cycle routes of about 900 kilometres. Below is the map of the cyclable paths:
Beside the private owned bikes, London counts with a public cycle scheme with more than 11,500 bikes and 750 docking stations. However the distribution of this docking station is quite uneven.
As seen above, the most centric boroughs have the majority of the docking stations. todo link to density plot, talk about the density population in those boroughs
If we take a look into the usage of this public bikes, overall there is an increase on the cycle hires on summer and spring, something to be expected if we keep in mind the weather. However, since covid started, the increase is way more noticeable specially whenever the mobility restrictions are lifted. todo link to mobility restrictions
Public transport
As we can see, not all boroughs have the same number of bus stops.
As we can see, not all boroughs have the same number of tfl stops (includes Tube, DLR, Overground, Tramlink, Emirates Air Line and Crossrail stations)
Differences between restriction obidience between the first and the second lockdown
When people were initially forced to stay at home and reduce the amount of time they spend among other people, most took it very seriously and avoided going out of their homes at all costs. The public opinion about what is acceptable or safe to do, has been gradually getting broader during the pandemic, whether this change comes from better understanding of COVID-19, or the fact that the population is losing it’s patience with the lockdowns, we’ll leave this up for the reader.
We have picked the start date of the first lockdown, to be 24/03/2020, when the majority of the restrictions were put into place, similarly, we have decided on 05/11/2020 as the start of the second lockdown. We have taken the mobility data available for the week after the introduction of a restrictions and averaged them. With this we are able to visualize the change in people’s tendency, to follow restrictions related to movement.
Areas of negative change
As we have foreshadowed above, people seem to care less about the restrictions as we move forward in time, changes in Grocery and Pharmacy, Retail and Recreation, Transit Stations and Workplaces, show a significant drop, from the baseline, both in the first and second lockdown.
Areas of psoitive change
Unsurprisingly Residential movement has increased during both lockdowns, since if people want to meet up, their only option is someone’s home or some public area. Speaking of, Parks have seen a mild increase during the first lockdown, but has skyrocketed during the second lockdown. The reason? People initially didn’t know how contagious COVID-19 was in an outdoors setting, but the public opinion has shifted in this regard. What is also interesting to note is that, Parks have seen a significant increase during the second lockdown, but keep in mind that this was in November.
